Insight: Canada's oil sand battle with Europe
Source: Reuters
Insight: Canada's oil sand battle with Europe
By Barbara Lewis, David Ljunggren and Jeffrey Jones
BRUSSELS/OTTAWA | Thu May 10, 2012 9:34am EDT
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A 2011 study for the EU by Stanford University academic Adam Brandt found that oil-sand crude was as much as 22 percent more carbon intensive.
Canada, whose oil sands have helped it become an energy power, fears such a ruling could imperil a resource it estimates will add more than C$3 trillion to its economy over the next 25 years.
Which is why Ottawa has waged a concerted lobbying campaign against Brussels' proposal over the past three years. An examination of hundreds of pages of documents obtained under access to information legislation in both Brussels and Ottawa, some dating back to 2009, as well as interviews with leading officials in both Canada and Europe show just how extensive that effort has been.
The governments of Canada and Alberta, along with Canadian companies, have wooed dozens of European parliamentarians, offered trips to Alberta and sponsored conferences in an effort that Chris Davies, a British Liberal Member of the European Parliament and a backer of the EU proposal, said "has been stunning in its intensity."
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/10/us-oil-sands-idUSBRE8490OL20120510